If Dexter Lewis is convicted of stabbing five people to death, his attorneys say victims' families should not be allowed to speak to jurors before they deliberate his fate.

Lewis, 24, faces the death penalty and a total of 16 charges for his role in the attack at Fero's Bar and Grill in October 2012.

During a hearing in Denver District Court on Friday — the last in a week of motions hearings — defense attorneys asked the judge to exclude victim impact statements if the jury convicts Lewis. Prosecutors will ask a jury to find Lewis guilty and then unanimously impose the death penalty.

Defense attorneys called Ray Paternoster, a professor at the University of Maryland, who released a 2013 study examining whether hearing about who the victim was and how their death affected their friends and family, makes jurors more inclined to impose a death sentence.

About 170 potential jurors in Baltimore were split into two groups. One group watched video from a past death penalty case where the victim's family and friends spoke during a sentencing hearing, the second group watched a video where the that testimony was edited out, Paternoster said.

Both groups then filled out a questionnaire. About 62 percent of people in the group that watched the victim impact statements said they would impose the death penalty, compared to 17 percent for the group that did not, Paternoster said.

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Prosecutors quickly pointed out the study's limitations, including the fact that it did not account for the deliberation process, experiencing the full trial and not witnessing the presentation of all the evidence in the case.

Denver District Judge John Madden will rule on a number of motions argued this week in writing. A trial date has not yet been set.

Five people were stabbed to death at Fero s Bar and Grill in Denver on Oct. 17, 2012. (RJ Sangosti, Denver Post file)

Two other men charged in the case, brothers Joseph and Lynell Hill, have accepted plea agreements in exchange for their testimony against Lewis.

A forth man connected to the deaths, Demarea Harris, was an informant for the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives on an unrelated investigation when the killings occurred. He was never arrested in the case and has not been charged.

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